The latest Capital Letters segment of the Daily Nation features the of plight of Ezzi, a Kenyan whose airtime mysteriously disappears from her phone after topping. As posted in the feature, Ezzi has reported the case to Airtel Kenya on several occasions but wasn’t satisfied with the response he/she was receiving. Ezzi forwarded this plight to Capital letters who in turn got in touch with Airtel and it was discovered that Ezzi’s airtime was being billed on data. Airtel further stated that they have explained the case to the Ezzi’s. As it is the norm with most smartphones, Ezzi’s phone continuously consumes internet data which in turn drained airtime on the phone, a practical explanation to why airtime kept disappearing from Ezzi’s phone.

“The customer is always right” is a phrase aimed at making the customer feel special by inculcating into staff, who serve customers, the disposition to behave as if the customer was right. A. Blanton Godfrey, Professor of Textile and Apperel Technology and Management, College of Textiles, North Carolina State University, terms this phrase as most misleading, to a large degree, he is right; not always.

It’s not too hard to think of many examples where customers are not always right. There are customers who bargain for prices that are way below what’s fair to the seller, or customers who get a little bit out of hand when they are not satisfied with the service they are getting, going as far as to insult the helpless staff representing the business.

As posted in qualitydigest.com, there are incidences where the customers opinion were plain wrong, a classic example being the Walkman story. Customers told the market researchers that they did not need or want a small radio to listen to while walking around. Sony ignored this opinion and went ahead to manufacture walkmans, several years down the down, most of us walk around listening to music stored in our phones, ipad’s or mp3s. A service we probably wouldn’t enjoy if Sony listened to the customers opinion.

There are many examples where customers feel that they want something that might just not be right for them. Perhaps a customer wants a tailor to adjust a cloth in certain manner but due to the tailor’s experience, those adjustments might not be right for that particular customer. It’s no secret that looks good on someone else might not look good on you. Considering the fact making those adjustments might result in a disastrous outcome, it’s at times best to refuse and lose that customer as opposed to creating something that will definitely result in long term dissatisfaction on the customer’s part.

Lawyers, who offer personalised, service suffer most from this concept. They are at times forced to attend to their clients’ needs even when it’s during a time that’s off their work day. Doing all this in the name of keeping the customer satisfied.

The unfortunate reality is that a dissatisfied customer is a risk to a business. With growth of Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) community, anyone can simply post a complaint on twitter in turn painting a damaging picture of a certain business establishment. You have probably tried it yourself. The response you will get is overwhelming.

In as much as the customer might not always be right, businesses have to do all that is possible to please the customer or at least keep them from running to twitter or facebook and post a damaging image of the business.

But then again, this shouldn’t be an excuse to put up with poor service, if you are not satisfied with what you are paying for, express it to the relevant party in a mature manner, plus remember to keep an open mind. The fact that you're the customer may not necessarily mean you're right.